Bloomfield (1971)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Directors:

Richard Harris
Uri Zohar

Writers:

Joseph Gross (novel)
Richard Harris (additional material)

Release Date:

August 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

A moving story of a sportsman...Football is his whole life.

Plot:

Richard Harris portrays Eitan, yesterday's football hero waiting for tomorrow. A man who has nothing left but guts...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Richard Harris	...	Eitan
Romy Schneider	...	Nira
Kim Burfield	...	Nimrod
Maurice Kaufmann	...	Yasha
Yossi Yadin	...	Weiner
Shraga Friedman	...	Chairman
Aviva Marks	...	Teddy
Yossi Graber	...	Bank Manager
David Heyman	...	Eldad
Gideon Shemer	...	Avraham
Sarah Moor	...	Sarah
Reuven Bar-Yotam	...	Menachem
Zvi Yaron	...	Nimrod's Father
Beyla Genauer	...	Nimrod's Mother
Amnon Berenson	...	Bulldozer Foreman

Also Known As:

The Hero (USA)

Runtime:

USA:97 min

Country:

UK | Israel

Language:

English | Hebrew

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:PG | UK:U (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) | Iceland:L

Company:

Cenfilco Tel Aviv

Richard Harris at his best

If you have enjoyed Richard Harris' work over his long career, this film is definitely worth seeing. Richard was a born rebel and this film is a natural vehicle for him. Filmed in Israel amid a stark landscape, it is firstly unusual looking. The story is of a 12 year old soccer fan who is obsessed with Eitan, the legendary football star of Isreal. He runs away from to find his hero. Arriving at Bloomfield stadium , he sees Eitan practicing with the team, unaware that the Football club have fallen through on their promise to Eitan. The boy and Eitan strike up a friendship because of their shared love of the game. They go on a journey together and Nimrod gets a real life view of his hero, who nearly sells out for money to throw the big game and be set up financially for the rest of his life. In the end, the hero has pride and honor but sadly looses the game , the boy and his sensible girlfriend, the late lovely Romy Schneider. But as we see in the final frame of the film, Eitan will go on living his own life anyway. Which is really the story about the actor himself. Richard Harris made his own rules in life and followed his own course. Unfortunately this is Harris' only directing effort. The film was not critically praised nor did it do well at the box office. This film has only been released on VHS as of this writing and is difficult to find. Try "IOffer" and eBay. I love it, but then I do admit to bias as I am a big fan of Richards' and I dearly miss him.